The diaries of the last British governor of Hong Kong
Chris Patten is as scathing about some compatriots as about China’s Communist Party
The Hong Kong Diaries. By Chris Patten. Allen Lane; 560 pages; £30
It is april 1st 1997, just three months before Britain is due to hand Hong Kong back to China. As they prepare to leave, the territory’s colonial rulers go through their files to determine which documents to send back to London and which to destroy. Chris Patten, the governor, notes in his diary a “fascinating” find: decade-old telegrams that showed what he and many others had always suspected. A few years before he took over, a British-backed effort to consult people in Hong Kong about introducing more democracy had been manipulated to produce a result that China would like and to justify delaying reform. “I suppose that I’ve always hoped that it wasn’t true,” Lord Patten reflects.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Perfidious Albion”
Culture July 9th 2022
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